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It's not quite my era- I'm more of an 80's chick- but one of the big things in the 60's and 70's was the rise of Pop Culture. So the ordinary bloke in the pub would moan about teens with long hair (The Beatles' hair was considered long in those days.) When David Bowie hit the scene with his make-up he was really strange.

In 1966 the BIG talking point was football (soccer as you lot over the pond call it) because England won the World Cup. Everyone was incredibly excited about that. Every kid wanted to be Bobby Moore or Geoff Hurst (he scored a hatrick that won us the cup). Tottenham and Chelsea were the big glamour clubs in London. The footballers frequented night clubs a lot.

Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton were well known models of the day. Mary Quant invented the Mini-skirt.

I don't really know what kids used to do - apart from play outside a lot. TV's were becoming more widespread but they were mainly black and white. Princess Anne got married in 1973 (I think) and everyone wanted to see it on a colour TV but they were very expensive. there were radio programmes for children in the 70's. One was called 'Listen with Mother' and it lasted about an hour. It played stories and music. There were also kids programmes on TV- Bill and Ben, The Magic Roundabout, Blue Peter (still going strong). No kids channels obviously but they'd be on after school for an hour or so.

Political scandals- well in 1963 there was the Profumo scandal. A cabinet minister (Profumo) was found to be having an affair with an escort girl called Christine Keeler. She was also having a fling with a Russian diplomat so there was all that intrigue.

The Moon landings of 1969 had a huge impact.

In the 70's there was something brought in by the government called the three day week. This ran from 7th January 1974 - 7th march 1974 This was where to curb inflation they cut wages and hours in the factories to three days instead of five. There were many strikes in 1973 when the government were debating this- especially from the Energy companies so the country would be in blackout. The government at the time were hugely unpopular (Ted Heath was the Prime minister) and were voted out in 1974. A Labour government took over and they too were very unpopular because inflation rose to record levels as did unemployment. The Labour leader was Harold Wilson. He stepped down in 1976 when he turned 60 and was succeeded by Jim Callaghan- who was reasonably popular. However Britain was in recession and by 1979 Margaret Thatcher had won for the Conservatives.

The man in the pub would refer to the Conservatives as Tories- and they're generally supposed to be Upper class Toffs- whereas Labour in those days were working for the Working class.

Other political names of the 70's would be Tony Benn (a Lord who gave up his title to be an MP) Dennis Healey- notable for very large eyebrows and appearences on TV.

If you want something specific then feel free to PM me or get back to me on this thread.

you lot are amazing

I'm thinking kind of high-end of the lower class, low-end of the middle class, living somewhere south of the city of London, Southwark or Borough, maybe even Elephant & Castle, but if you know anything that would be useful for a wealthy pureblood family living on the other side of the Thames, Evie, I would be forever indebted.

Carole, you are AMAZING. That helps LOADS. Would you happen to have any other ides what a sixteen or seventeen year old boy would be doing in his spare time, other than football? It sounds like employment was hard to come by, so would having a job delivering newspapers or maybe working a trashy novel shop would be implausible?

It wouldn't be implausiable at all. Not many people went to uni during that time, especially not during the sixties. People were a bit hippy-ish, although not as drastically as they were in the States, so a lot of people would either being doing demonstrations and marches, or laughing at those who did demonstrations and marches.

Brixton in the sixties was a popular area- especially for shopping. My husband's family lived around that area at the time. It's quite rundown now - or was in the 80s because there were riots but in the sixties it was cool and cheap.

EDIT: According to my husband Brixton in the 60s and 70s was starting to become an area with a large immigrant population (Caribbean origin) so perhaps not the best area for your wizard. He thinks Elephant and Castle at the time was a very run down area too. He suggested Portabello Road area which was considered up and coming and very funky!

For a posh, pure-blood family then you need to be looking at Kensington or Mayfair area. I used to work in Kensington (not in the 60's I hasten to add) and it's where I picture Grimmauld Place- if that's the family you're thinking of

As far as the sixteen year old working. I think a book shop or perhaps a record store sounds like a good idea. Paper rounds were generally for younger children. I think 16/17 year olds would be very into music. British Music, at the time, led the world, also there was a big swing towards fashion.

Another Edit: Record shops sprang up all over the place in the 60s and 70s. Kids would spend ages in them listening to records in booths.

Something else I've thought of is an old boss of mine who said when he was a teenager The Godfather films came out.(1972) They were pretty influential and American Culture started to become pretty big. This annoyed the hell out of the old timers who still thought of the Americans as 'Overpaid, Oversexed and Overhere' - which was a throwback to WW2.

My character, a distinguished older pureblood who has built up quite a fortune through some less-than-savoury activities, retires from his business and buys a small house somewhere nice to live out his retirement in peace. Where would this house be?

He has grown up in Kent, near the coast. His entire family is well-off, and he was raised among the wizard elite. Money is no object.

When people retire, they could live anywhere. As a 'distinguished older pureblood' I imagine him staying in a house near the sea (if he lived there before it makes sense), but slightly further inland, and in the countryside - probably with no neighbours. I don't know your character, but if he's rich and wants to be in peace, this seems like the perfect location to me. Though, you could have him in a village. Or a town. Or a city. I think a village would be the biggest place someone like this would go though. If they're a wizard they can apparate places at their convenience, unlike Muggles, so living near a shop would be unnecessary.